Polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) are two of the most demanded polymers in the world. Together, these polymers make up half of the volume of plastic produced worldwide.
During polyolefin production, a small portion of the olefin feedstock is lost through raw material purification, chemical reaction, and product purification and finishing. In particular, paraffin that enters with the olefin feedstock must be removed to prevent its build up in the reactor loop, and olefin is lost when this paraffin is purged from the loop. This results in an annual loss of $1 million to $3 million per year for a typical polyolefin plant. The development of a more efficient way to prevent the loss of olefin monomer in the feedstock has been an on-going process for those in the petrochemical field.
In polyolefin manufacturing, a feedstock containing olefin monomer, catalysts, and other agents is introduced into a high-pressure polymerization reactor. During the reaction, a raw polymer product is produced. The raw product contains polyolefin, significant amounts of unreacted olefin, and small amounts of solvents, catalysts, stabilizers, other hydrocarbons or any other materials, depending on the manufacturing process used. To remove the volatile contaminants dissolved in the raw product, it is passed to large bins, where nitrogen is used to purge them out. The vent gas from this step contains nitrogen, unreacted olefin monomer, unwanted analogue paraffins that entered with the olefin feedstock, and other process-specific materials. In the past, this vent gas was sent for flaring, resulting in a waste of unreacted olefin.
Various process and techniques have been proposed for mitigating the loss of unreacted olefin in the vent stream.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,704, to Dembicki et al. (Dow Chemical Company), discloses a process for treating a polymerization vent gas with a membrane. The vent stream is compressed and then cooled and condensed. Cooled gas and liquid are sent to a liquid/gas separator. After separation, the gas stream is sent through a series of membrane separation steps, which produce a permeate stream enriched in ethylene. The recovered ethylene is recycled to the polymerization process.
Co-owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,089,033 and 5,199,962, to Wijmans (Membrane Technology and Research, Inc.), disclose processes for recovering a condensable component in a gas stream that would otherwise be discharged into the atmosphere. The processes involve a condensation step and a membrane separation step. In one embodiment, the gas stream is compressed and cooled to carry out the condensation step. Uncondensed gas is then passed across a membrane that is selectively permeable to the condensable component.
Co-owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,319, to Baker et al. (Membrane Technology and Research, Inc.), discloses a process for treating the uncondensed gas stream using a gas separation membrane that is permeable for propylene over propane. A permeate stream enriched in olefin is withdrawn and recycled to the reactor inlet.
These patents, and other prior art technologies, have mainly focused on condensing the vent stream and recovering unreacted olefin from the resulting uncondensed gas produced from the condensation step. However, little is taught on recovering unreacted olefins from the condensed liquid stream.
Co-owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,927, to Gottschlich et al. (Membrane Technology and Research, Inc.), discloses a process for treating a purge vent stream from a polymer manufacturing operation. The purge vent stream contains an unreacted olefin monomer and nitrogen. The purge vent stream is initially treated in a condensation step. The uncondensed gas is then passed to a membrane separation step, where the membrane is organic-selective, meaning that the membrane is selective for unreacted monomer over other gases. The liquid condensate is directed to a flashing step. The flashing step produces a liquid product stream enriched in monomer and a flash gas that is recirculated in the process.
Although it is known that the permeate stream from the membrane separation of the uncondensed gas stream, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,319, above, is enriched in olefin, the condensed liquid stream still contains unwanted contaminants, such as paraffin and dissolved nitrogen. Thus, there remains a need to further treat purge bin vent streams to recover unreacted olefin.